Man dies 'due to overcrowding' at A&E department

85-year-old suffers cardiac arrest while waiting to be treated at Northampton General Hospital

Northampton General Hospital said its accident and emergency department had been 'experiencing unprecedented demand' (Burgess Von Thunen/Creative Commons)

An elderly man died due to “dangerous overcrowding” at an accident and emergency department, an NHS trust’s medical director has said.

The 85-year-old suffered cardiac arrest while waiting to be treated for stomach pains at Northampton General Hospital on Wednesday afternoon.

In an email leaked to Health Service Journal (HSJ), the trust’s medical director Matthew Metcalfe said the patient died “due entirely to the dangerous overcrowding of the department”.

The man was initially seen and assessed within an hour and was waiting on a chair to be seen by senior staff after a blood test suggested he may have heart problems, HSJ reported. He deteriorated and went into cardiac arrest in the A&E unit.

Mr Metcalfe email to the trust’s medical consultants said: “Last night a patient died due entirely to the dangerous overcrowding of the department.

“The risk we have all been aware of, but may have felt hypothetical, has just happened.”

A spokeswoman for Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust said the email was sent to all consultants “to ensure they were fully aware of the seriousness of the position in our emergency department and also the importance of their ongoing support to our patients attending the department and their colleagues in the ED team”.

She added: “Ideally this patient would not have waited so long, would have been reviewed sooner by a senior consultant and might have been in a hospital bed on a ward at the time of his deterioration.

“We don’t yet know what difference this would have made to the final outcome.”

The hospital’s A&E unit has seen an “unprecedented” average of 400 patients a day attending over the past few months, an increase of almost 30 per cent on the same period last year.

“This has inevitably had an impact on our ability to consistently provide a high standard of patient safety in our ED”, the trust said.

“Staff at NGH are resolutely focused on patient safety and are proud of their efforts in this regard. Although every effort is made to see, assess and treat patients quickly in our ED department and NGH has a good record in this regard.

“However, in this situation the long wait for further treatment and assessment led to an unacceptable outcome.”

The trust has apologised to the family of the man, who attended A&E just after 4pm on Wednesday with non-specific upper abdominal pain.

He was triaged at 5.30pm and blood tests revealed he was anaemic with a possible cardiac problem, so medics planned to give him a blood transfusion. But his condition deteriorated just before 1am, and he suffered a cardiac arrest before being seen again.

The trust said it would carry out “a full investigation” into the man’s death “to ensure any learning from this sad incident is taken forward”.

In a statement issued by the trust, Mr Metcalfe added: “The impact of the pressure in our emergency department and the associated delays are not yet known and will be included within the scope of our investigation.

“We have expressed our sincere apologies to the family and will share our findings with them as soon as we can.”

Additional reporting by Press Association